<b>Archives International, May 23:</b> National Banknote Assortment of Original 1st Charter, Plain Back and Date Back Issues. Lot of 6 notes, Includes Pennsylvania Nationals, First National Bank of Selins Grove, 1865, $1… $3,200 to $4,400

<b>Sotheby’s Paris, May 24:</b> JESUITS. <i>Relation de ce qui s’est passé en la Nouvelle France en 1635</i> […] 1672. Period calf binding. Very rare set of letters about life in the French territories among warring Indian tribes. 12,000-18,000 €

<b>ALDE, May 30:</b> BRETON (André). <i>Arcane 17.</i> New York, Brentano's, 1944. One of the 25 first copies with the original etching signed by Roberto Matta. 6000 to 8000 €

<b>ALDE, May 30:</b> HÉRON DE VILLEFOSSE (René). <i>La Rivière enchantée.</i> Paris, Bernard Klein, 1951. One of the 25 first copies on japon with an original watercolored drawing signed by Léonard Foujita. 60,000 to 80,000 €

Rare Book Monthly

Book Business Heroes

- by Karen Wright

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Though this decision only affects Colorado, the long-range effect, if all booksellers stand up to this intrusive procedure, may be that the government can no longer search one’s reading habits in hopes of finding some way to prosecute for a breach of the law.

Chris Finan, President of the ABFFE said, in an interview with Christopher Dreher from Salon.com, "If we allow law enforcement access to customer records whenever they think it's convenient, customers won't feel secure purchasing books and magazines that are their constitutional right to buy. It's important because many books are very private, or about sensitive issues, and if they feel booksellers turn over buying information at regular intervals, customers won't buy those books."

Now, one might argue that amphetamine manufacturers and drug dealers do not deserve First Amendment protection. It is certainly not the intention of any book dealer of my acquaintance to encourage the manufacture and dealing of dangerous drugs or condone any other crime for that matter. Most of us are law-abiding and support our local law officers. But that is not the issue. The fact remains that once the government is allowed to pry into these kinds of records – books, videos, emails, etc. – they will be closing the distance to Big Brother. Just about any book that one reads could be used to prove one is some sort of criminal.

At a hearing in October of 2000, our hero, Meskis, explained that bookstore customers should not have to be afraid to buy controversial books and went on to note that she received hundreds of letters and phone calls from people who fully agreed with her. Other witnesses included Judith Krug, a librarian and director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association. She explained that “violating the reader’s right to privacy would ultimately erode public dissemination of information.” (ABFFE).

In addition, “Charles Robinson, a Washington bookseller who has belonged to the American Booksellers Association for twenty years, including two terms as its president, and who served as founding vice-president and is a current board member of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, testified regarding the heavy and far-reaching burden compliance with search warrants such as these would present.” (ABFFE).

<b>19th Century Shop:</b> Charles Darwin on sexuality and the transmission of hereditary characteristics: Autograph Letter Signed to Lawson Tait. Down, 17 January [1877].

<b>19th Century Shop:</b> MILTON, JOHN. <i>Paradise Lost. A Poem written in ten books.</i> London: 1667. A very rare example with the contemporary binding untouched and with a 1667 title page.

<b>19th Century Shop:</b> Hamilton secures the ratification of the Constitution: <i>The Debates and Proceedings of the Convention of the State of New-York, assembled at Poughkeespsie, on the 17th June, 1788.</i>

<b>19th Century Shop:</b> The social contract “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains”: ROUSSEAU, JEAN-JACQUES. <i>Principes du Droit Politique [Du Contract Social]</i>. Amsterdam: Michel Rey, 1762

<b>19th Century Shop:</b> “The first English textbook on geometrical land-measurement and surveying”: BENESE, RICHARD. <i>This Boke Sheweth the Maner of Measurynge All Maner of Lande…</i>

<b>Forum Auctions: Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper. May 31, 2018</b>

<b>Forum Auctions, May 31:</b> Simcoe (John Graves). Plan of the Province of Upper Canada with part of the Adjacent Countries, manuscript map… with numerous contemporary annotations. £6,000 to £8,000

<b>Forum Auctions: Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper. May 31, 2018</b>

<b>Forum Auctions, May 31:</b> Book of Hours. Hours of the Virgin [Use of Rome] in Latin, miniature illuminated manuscript on vellum with 6 full-page miniatures and 6 large initials with borders, Flanders, [2nd quarter of 15th century]. £6,000 to £8,000

<b>Forum Auctions, May 31:</b> Pasternak (Boris). <i>Doktor Zhivago</i> original typescript, 2 vol., with manuscript corrections and insertions by the author, the George Katkov copy, c.1956. £100,000 to £150,000

<b>Forum Auctions: Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper. May 31, 2018</b>

<b>Chiswick Auctions, May 30:</b> Ransome (Arthur). <i>Swallows and Amazons,</i> FIRST EDITION, ownership inscription to half title. Only 2,000 copies of the first edition printed. £3,000 to £4,000

<b>Chiswick Auctions, May 30:</b> Sewell (Anna). <i>Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions. The Autobiography of a Horse. Translated from the original Equine,</i> FIRST EDITION, engraved frontispiece. £3,000 to £4,000

<b>Chiswick Auctions, May 30:</b> Potter (Beatrix). <i>The Tale of Peter Rabbit,</i> FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING, limited to 250 copies [with] the FIRST PUBLISHED EDITION. £12,000 to £15,000

<b>Chiswick Auctions, May 30:</b> Wells (H. G.). <i>War of the Worlds,</i> original Danish manuscript, the text written out in block script ink, with over 620 original drawings in ink and watercolour. £1,800 to £2,200

<b>Chiswick Auctions, May 30:</b> Toulouse-Lautrec (Henri de).- Clemenceau (Georges). <i>Au Pied de Sinai,</i> NUMBER 104 OF 355 COPIES, with the suite of 10 lithographs by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 2 states. £1,500 to £2,000